Exclusive: Listen to Margot & the Nuclear So and So's 'Hello, San Francisco'

Indie rockers all grown up

Everyone grows up, even indie rockers. Such is the case for Richard Edwards, leader of the sweetly harmonic Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, whose new album, Sling Shot to Heaven, comes out April 22, a full ten years after their debut. A lot has happened since then. They've had families, been around the world. It's also the last album they'll record in the studio they built with the advance money from their first album, The Dust of Retreat.

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Musically, they've smoothed out their already polished sound, bridging the gap between their swirling rock roots and the sort of grownup dad rock you'd expect from Wilco — but more forgiving, with softer edges and less jamming. Edwards has this to say about "Hello, San Francisco":

"I think this was the last song I wrote for the record. The reason being, I got a silly idea in my head that I wanted an album to start with the lines, 'Hello, San Francisco! Baby, I don't ever wanna die,' and it took a while for me to write a halfway decent song around that pre-conceived bit of silliness. It's a worthy representation of the spirit of the record. It sounds like fall to me, and I'm always trying, and mostly failing, at making things that sound like fall."

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